D-Day

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esterday was the day the boys in blue had to man up, but instead had there asses handed to them. It is unimaginable how they lost so ignominiously. Or maybe not. Matt Leinart was very mediocre in the first half, but Reggie Bush was a monster. It's like an adult playing against fifth graders, the gap was just impossibly vast. I still don't know the final score. Once ABC switched to the FSU-Va Tech game, I didn't bother to find out.

I didn't have to. The game up until the final minutes explicitly showed our deficiencies, warts and all: Our defense sucks--of course we knew that all season. Our hope was to somehow slow them down, try to keep up with them--I mean their defense has given up a lot of points as well. But to accomplish this was to rely on our offense, which for some inexplicable reason, did not show up for this game. How can you not show up for this game? It is in explicable.

What is clear, however, is SC's integrity. They obviously hate us as much as we hate them, but they are much more efficient and explicit in showing it. In the 3rd quarter, with the game well in hand, SC is 4th and 10 and they go for it? SC was still playing with its first string out there and obviously trying to run up the score. In comparison, Vince Young of Texas barely played in the second half yesterday. Pom Pom Pete obviously feels that he needs to beat UCLA to a pulp. He did this two years ago as well. But this thug-like, take-no-prisoners, lets beat-a-dog-when-its-down and embarrass-them-as-much-as-possible kind of attitude does not surprise me. It is, after all, the school from which O.J. Simpson graduated. He obviously had no respect for the lives of others, as well. One might insist that this is the past, that this is old news. Well, SC is also the school of Maualauga, a current freshman linebacker who decided to rearrange the face of another SC student at a Halloween party. He was arrested for a misdemeanor, and he was alledged to have said, "We own the police." But coach Pom Pom, still allowed him to play in the next game, likely because of the lack of depth in that position. But this does not teach young men accountability. His message to his players is that, if you perform on the field, it doesn't matter what you do off the field. This is how you develop thugs and people like... well, O.J. Apparently, Maualauga's father is sick with cancer, and so the detractors should give him some slack, Pom Pom says. And surely, someone with a loved one in pain is under stress. I would know. My mother had cancer too, and she died from it. But I didn't hit anyone, and I certainly didn't go to any party--Halloween or otherwise. Instead, I took off of work and spent time with her in the hospital.

But this is SC and I suppose each institute of "higher education" has its own threshold of tolerance. SC students and fans obviously have a higher tolerance for this kind of attitude than I. I will have to content myself with the fact that UCLA is better than SC in every way except on the football field. That we have a football team to cheer for is great and fun, but my pride in the football team is based on their integrity, not their Ws and Ls. The Bruins are now 9-2--admittedly, a very suspect 9-2--but hopefully it will be something to build on.

Oh well, it is time for me to return to real life--is Xanga real life? But then, there's alway basketball season...